It's a sweet concoction that Jerry Stroope is sharing with customers when his 3,000 hives create honey harvested twice a year through his Stroope Honey Farms in Pearland.

This pure natural honey, light amber in coloring and unfiltered, is infused with a robust floral taste courtesy of Gulf Coast wildflowers. His bees collect their nectar throughout the surrounding Houston area, including Pasadena, La Porte, Pearland, Alvin and Friendswood, with 48 hives per land location.

This year-round business takes bees nationwide to California to pollinate almond orchards, to North Dakota for canola and to Floydada, Texas, for pumpkins and cotton blossom nectar when they're not home collecting nectar for their honey-making season in the greater Houston area.

His honey is sold at Whole Foods, Sprouts, Central Market, Fiesta, Kroger and Ace Hardware stores in Friendswood, Pearland, Angleton and Clear Lake.

Restaurants also take notice of his product. Gringo's, Goode Company Barbeque, Saltgrass Steakhouse, Hillstone and Iguana Rana's all use his honey in their cooking.

The draw is the flavor and the fact that it is local, which is reported to help people in battling allergens, according to experts.

Mead said, "He does an amazing job of preserving the hive and providing for the local economy. It's a great product that has consistency. You can tell the quality is there. The flavor is perfect."

Stroope's venture into the honey/beekeeping business began at age 10 when his father, O.T. Stroope, gave him a hive.It was then he officially became a third-generation beekeeper. Today at 65, Stroope continues with the family tradition.

Beekeeping wasn't his first choice when selecting his lifetime career. In 1973 when Stroope graduated from the University of Houston with a degree in business administration with a concentration in finance and marketing, he never thought it would be used in the honey industry.

With a surge in honey prices at that time, it looked pretty appealing, though.

Stroope took on an enormous business loan and was determined to make it work with Stroope Bee and Honey Inc. with his father and brother joining him in partnership. It was a long, hard road, but his self-described "hard-headedness" wouldn't allow him to fail. Years later, the loan was paid off and the business was doing well.

In 2000, a turning point happened when Stroope visited a Kroger and the manager learned he was a beekeeper. That discussion led to supplying products to the store and the launch of his product line.

Demand for local honey and locally produced products fueled his success.

All of sudden we caught on," said Stroope. "We have more and more stores calling us. We started supplying large numbers of orders and delivery."

In 2005, Stroope Bee and Honey Inc. became Stroope Honey Farms when Stroope sold his shares and broke away from business with his father and brother. Starting from scratch, he knew what had to be done to build the business with a concentration on honey and pollination ventures.

"I had the experience to know what works and doesn't work. We grew fast. My honey is extracted, processed and bottled on the farm here. We have product control. With the colony collapse disorder, more crops needed bees and the demand for honey grew," Stroope said.

Stroope also battles colony collapse disorder, which involves the disappearance of worker bees, and which takes one-third of his hives a year.

His favorite part of the business is working with people and especially the bees and the amazing gift they give back.

"On any given day, there's no telling where I could be in the city. I like going out to the landowners where we have our hives. We stay with it. With our bees, we're going straight from the beehive to the table. We've chosen spots that have the right combination of spring flowers to make it tasty," he said.